Handel and Haydn at 200

Handel and Haydn opened their Bicentennial year with the classics: Haydn and Mozart. Leading off was Haydn’s Symphony #99 – a pleasant piece in which he first used the clarinet as part of the orchestra. Haydn spent the bulk of his career as Kapellmeister to Prince Nikolaus Esterhazy, one of the most powerful men in Austria, and I must believe that his style was developed as he wrote what would have been “easy listening” music for the rich and powerful. It is hard to dislike Haydn, but at the same time, it is hard to be passionate about his orchestral works, all of which sound vaguely similar. That said, H+H did a technically perfect rendering of the piece, and it was a relaxing opening. A short choral piece followed – Samuel Webbe’s “When winds breath soft” written for 5 voices and sung beautifully by a subset of the H+H chorus. The first half ended with a reprise of last year: a short section from Haydn’s Creation. The second half was devoted to Mozart’s stirring Requiem. Listening to this piece, unfinished at his death, it is hard not to feel the pain of the composer who died so young, and who wrote this as his own epitaph. The four soloists sang primarily as a quartet, and had fine voices, with a special shout-out to bass-baritone Dashon Burton for his mellifluous deep voice. The bulk of the singing was done by the full H+H chorus, and their technical mastery carried the day. This was a most stirring piece, sung stirringly. For readers on the South Coast: H+H will be giving a concert in Westport on November 22 as part of the Concerts on the Point. Don’t miss it.